Seven Managed Services Blogs MSPmentor Didn't Write: Oct. 29, 2010

I just returned home from the Avnet-IBM Partner Summit in San Antonio, Texas. And yes, there was some managed services chatter at the event. Plus, our team received plenty of news tips that we didn’t have time to blog about this week. So, here we go: The top seven managed services blogs MSPmentor didn’t write for the week ending October 29, 2010.

7. Recipe for Success?: Spiceworks, the advertising-based remote management platform, seems to be gaining momentum. According to the company, Spiceworks users manage 7,250 petabytes of storage and 9 petabytes are added each day. Morever, roughly 1.2 million IT pros use Spiceworks to support 37.5 million workers and 66 million computers and devices. Roughly 67,000 computers and 10,000 printers are added to the Spiceworks network daily, the company claims.

6. Mobile Managed Services: Mobile device management and mobile support is a growing theme within the MSP space. It generated major chatter at last week’s N-able Partner Summit. And this week, Avnet announced a MobililyPath practice to help MSPs and VARs create mobile-ready data centers. What’s next? Keep an eye on Labtech Software at the ConnectWise IT Nation conference (Nov. 4-6, Orlando, Fla.).

5. Management Moves: Some companies within the managed services and SaaS markets are looking to go public within the next few years. With that goal in mind, it’s safe to expect privately held MSP software and SaaS companies to hire executives who have experience with IPOs (initial public offerings). I expect several such hires to be named in the next few weeks. Stay tuned.

4. New Launches: NTRglobal plans to launch NTR Service Desk — a modular on-demand set of applications for asset management –in December. It will target the enterprise market, according to a company spokesperson. Meanwhile, Shockey Monkey Inc. has upgraded its management software for MSPs, VARs and IT consultants. Vlad Mazek, CEO of Own Web Now Corp. and Shockey Monkey, says the upgrade improves agreement management, agreement and service billing, service management and a new accounting module. Meanwhile, Level Platforms has started to promote Managed Workplace 2011 to selected audiences. It’s safe to expect more details from Level Platforms at the ConnectWise IT Nation conference.

3. Worth Noting: N-able honored several of its top MSP partners during the company’s N-able Partner Summit last week. Honorees included:

2. Big Idea?: A major managed service provider has been reaching out to Oracle. The goal: To build a relationship involving managed Oracle applications as well as SaaS deployments. Sounds like the chatter is just getting started but we’re listening closely for more clues.

1. Next Move: If you’re heading to ConnectWise IT Nation feel free to give me a shout for a potential meeting (Joe [at] NineLivesMediaInc [dot] com.

Thanks for reading. I appreciate your time and the continued conversations across MSPmentor.

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